It is necessary to learn at least one foreign language today. That’s why pupils and students have got such subject as a foreign language at school, college, institute, university, etc.

The problem of learning languages is very important today. Foreign languages are socially demanded especially at the present time. We know that the progress in science and technology has led to an explosion of knowledge and has contributed to an overflow of information. Foreign languages are needed as the main and the most efficient means of information exchange of the people of our planet.

Today English is the language of the world. English is not only the national or official language of some thirty states which represent different cultures, but it is also the major international language of communication in such areas as science, technology, business and mass entertainment. English is one of the official languages of the United Nations Organization and other political organizations. It is the language of literature, education, modern music, international tourism. English is everywhere.

Learning of foreign languages helps:

- to read foreign literature in the original (English is the language of great literature.);

- to understand foreign films without translation (Many new films in English come out every year);

- to travel (It is much easier to travel when you know the language. If you want to ask something, you can do it in English.);

- to visit camps and communicate with the boys, girls, men and women who do not know Russian ( There are many international friendship camps in the world. If you speak English, it will be easy for you to visit such camps.);

- to make your outlook wider and etc.

Today, one person in seven of the world’s population either knows English or learns it. So a modern and a cultured person must learn foreign languages. But learning a foreign language is not an easy thing. It is a long and slow process that takes a lot of time and efforts. There is a big problem of spelling, of the large number of exceptions to any rule. English is one of those languages which may seem easy in the beginning, but then the bridge between basic knowledge and mastery takes a long time to cross. But if you do cross this bridge it will give you great satisfaction.

Pupils start learning English with the ABC, transcription and sounds. Then they learn some English words, conversational phrases and dialogues by heart, read and translate easy texts, do exercises, write dictations, work in the language laboratories listening to the recorded tapes. From lesson to lesson they improve their knowledge, learn more new words, grammatical structures and put them into practice of speaking.

The main students’ tasks are:

- Learn more words;

- Read, translate texts and discuss their contentsin English;

- Communicate with one another making useful statements in real-life situations;

- Write in English;

- Be creative.

If you do all these things you will know English well.

 

Exercise 1. Study the following word-combinations:

foreign languages – иностранные языки

a language of communication, literature, education – язык общения, литературы, образования

to make one’s outlook wider – расширить кругозор

a cultured person – образованный человек

basic knowledge – основные знания

to communicate with someone – общаться с кем-либо

 

Exercise 2. Answer the questions:

1. Why is it necessary to study foreign languages?

2. Is English one of the official languages of the United Nations Organization?

3. What does learning of foreign languages help?

4. What are the main students’ tasks?

 

HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY

History, in its broadest sense, is the totality of all past events, although a more realistic definition would limit it to the known past. Historiography is the written record of what is known of human lives and societies in the past and how historians have attempted to understand and interpret them. The concern of all serious historians has been to collect and record facts about the human past and often to discover new facts to fill up as many gaps as possible in our historical knowledge.

Except for the special circumstance in which historians record events they themselves have witnessed, historical facts can only be known through intermediary sources. These include testimony from living witnesses; narrative records, such as previous histories, memoirs, letters, and imaginative literature; the legal and financial records of courts, legislatures, religious institutions, or businesses; and the unwritten information derived from the physical remains of past civilizations, such as architecture, arts and crafts, burial grounds, and cultivated land. All these, and many more sources of information provide the evidence from which the historian deciphers historical facts. The relation between evidence and fact, however, is rarely simple and direct. The evidence may be biased or mistaken, fragmentary, or nearly unintelligible after long periods of cultural or linguistic change. Historians, therefore, have known that the information requires careful attention and they have to assess their evidence with a critical eye.

The purpose of history to understand human life can never be fulfilled by the mere shifting of evidence for facts. Fact-finding is only the foundation for the selection, arrangement, and explanation that constitute historical interpretation. The process of interpretation informs all aspects of historical inquiry, beginning with the selection of a subject for investigation, because the very choice of a particular event or society or institution is itself an act of judgment that asserts the importance of the subject. Once chosen, the subject itself suggests a provisional model or hypothesis that guides research and helps the historian to assess and classify the available evidence and to present a detailed and coherent account of the subject. The historian must respect the facts, avoid ignorance and error as far as possible, and create a convincing, intellectually satisfying interpretation.

 

Exercise 1. Study the following words:

record – запись

gap – пробел

to witness – быть свидетелем чего-либо

testimony – свидетельское показание; утверждение

to decipher – расшифровывать

evidence – доказательство, подтверждение; свидетельство

to assess – оценивать, давать оценку

inquiry – исследование, изучение

to assert – утверждать; заявлять

coherent – связный, логически последовательный

 

Exercise 2. Answer the questions:

1. What is history and historiography?

2. Through what sources can historical facts be known?

3. What is the purpose of history?

4. Why can this purpose never be fulfilled by the mere shifting of evidence for facts?

 

 

TERRORISM

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror or unpredictable violence against governments, publics, or individuals to attain a political objective. Terrorism has been used by political organizations with both rightist and leftist objectives, by nationalistic and ethnic groups, by revolutionaries, and by the armies and secret police of the governments themselves.

Terrorism has been practiced throughout history and throughout the world. The ancient Greek historian Xenophon wrote of the effectiveness of psychological warfare against enemy populations. Roman emperors such as Tiberius and Caligula used banishment, expropriation of property, and execution as means to discourage opposition to their rule. The Spanish Inquisition used arbitrary arrest, torture, and exe­cution to punish what is viewed as religious heresy. After the American Civil-War (1861—65) defiant Southerners formed a terrorist organization called the Ku KIux Klan to intimidate supporters of Reconstruction. In the latter half of the 19th century, terrorism was adopted by adherents of anarchism in Western Europe, Russia, and the United States. They believed that the best way to effect revolutionary political and social change was to assassinate persons in po­sitions of power. From 1865 to 1905 a number of kings, presidents, prime ministers, and other government officials were killed by anarchists' guns or bombs.

The 20th century witnessed great changes in the use and practice of terrorism. Terrorism became the hallmark of a number of political movements stretching from the extreme right to the extreme left of the political spectrum. Technological advances such as automatic weapons and compact, electrically detonated explosives gave terrorists a new mobility and lethality.

Terrorism's public impact has been greatly magnified by the use of modern communications media. Any act of violence is certain to attract television coverage, which brings the event directly into millions of homes and exposes viewers to the terrorists' demands, grievances, or political goals. Modern terrorism differs from that of the past because its victims are frequently innocent civilians who are picked at random or who merely happen into terrorist situations. Terrorist vio­lent acts include kidnap­pings, assassinations, skyjackings, bombings, and hijackings.

 

Exercise 1. Study the following words and word-combinations:

unpredictable – непредсказуемый, непрогнозируемый

violence - насилие, применение силы

objective – цель

warfare – война, военные действия

banishment – изгнание, ссылка

torture – пытка

to assassinate – убивать(обычно политического или видного общественного деятеля)

hallmark – критерий, признак

impact – влияние

to mafnify – увеличивать, усиливать

demand – требование

grievance – жалоба

innocent civilians – невинные граждане

kidnapping – похищение людей

skyjacking – угон, похищение самолёта

hijacking – воздушное пиратство

 

Exercise 2. Answer the questions:

1. What is terrorism?

2. What examples of terrorism do you know throughout history?

3. Why has terrorism's public impact been magnified in the 20th century?

4. How does modern terrorism differ from that of the past?

 

HUMAN GENETIC DISORDERS

A genetic abnormality is nothing more than a rare, uncommon version of a trait, as when a person is born with six toes on each foot instead of five. A genetic disorder is an inherited condition that sooner or later will cause mild to severe problems. A syndrome is a recognized set of symptoms that characterize a given disorder.

As alleles underlying severe genetic disorders put people at great risk, they are rare in populations. Why, then, don’t they disappear entirely? There are two reasons. First, rare mutations introduce new copies of the alleles into the population. Second, the harmful allele is pared with the normal one that may cover its functions, so it still can be passed to offsprings.

The example of genetic disorder is Huntington disease. It is characterized by progressive involuntary movements and deterioration of the nervous system and eventual death. Symptoms may not even start to show up until an affected person is passed age thirty. Most people have already reproduced by them. Affected individuals die during their fortieth or fifties, before they might realize that they have transmitted the mutant allele to thir children.

Males show the recessive phenotype more often than females. A recessive allele can be masked in females, who may inherit a dominant allele on their other X chromosome. The allele is not masked in males who have only one X chromosome. A son can not inherit the recessive allele from his father. A daughter can. If a daughter has a genetic disorder, there is a 50 percent chance each son of hers will inherit the allele.

Color blindness, an inability to distinguish among some or all colors, is a common X-linked recessive trait. For example, in red-green color blindness, the individual lacks some or all of the sensory receptors that normally respond to visible light of red or green wavelengths.

Hemophilia A, blood-clotting disorder, is a case of X-linked recessive inheritance. In most people, a blood-clotting mechanism quickly stops bleeding from minor injuries. Clot formation requires the products of several genes, some of which are on the X chromosome. If any of X-linked genes is mutated in a male, the absence of its functional product prolongs bleeding. About 1 in 7 000 male inherits the mutant allele for hemophilia A.

 

Exercise1. Study the following words:

toe – палец ноги

disorder – нарушение

recessive – отступающий, удаляющийся

color blindness – дальтонизм

wavelength – длина световой волны

blood-clotting – свёртывание крови

bleeding – кровотечение

 

 

Exercise 2. Answer the questions:

1. What is a genetic abnormality?

2. Why is a genetic abnormality a very rare phenomenon in life?

3. What is Hungtington disease?

4. Why do males show the recessive phenotype more often than female?

5. What are color blindness and hemophilia? How do they occur?

 

 

CAFFEINE

Caffeine has many biological effects and, is the most widely and frequently consumed “drug” in the world. Approximately 80% of people in the world consume caffeine daily. Coffee and tea account for most of this intake, but soft drinks such as cola are also significant sources of caffeine. Other dietary sources include cocoa and chocolate. Cocoa and chocolate also have a high content of theobromine, which is structurally very similar to caffeine but is a much weaker psychostimulant.

Caffeine is also contained in some medicines, where it is combined with the painkillers aspirin, paracetamol or codeine.

If you drink a caffeine-containing drink, caffeine is rapidly absorbed from your gastrointestinal tract into your bloodstream. Peak concentration is reached after about 40-60 minutes. It is then distributed throughout the entire body, including the brain, and appears in all bodily fluids, including saliva and breast milk. Caffeine does not accumulate in the body because it is efficiently excreted, mainly in the urine. In adults, the elimination half-life of caffeine – the time it takes for half of the caffeine to be eliminated from the body - is around 3-6 hours. This time is increased during pregnancy and decreased in smokers.

Possible health risks that have been studied in relation to caffeine consumption include cardiovascular disease, cancer and psychiatric disorders. There is no evidence that it causes cancer, but there is concern that by raising blood pressure caffeine contributes to cardiovascular disease. Caffeine can also aggravate existing problems of anxiety, especially panic disorder. It does not, contrary to popular views, appear to contribute to depression or aggression.

Caffeine is consumed by large numbers of people, so its overall impact on human health is potentially huge. Unfortunately, this impact is difficult to quantify, partly becase in most of the relevant studies caffeine consumption has not been measured accurately.

 

Exercise 1. Study the following words and word-combinations:

cardiovascul – кардиососудистая система

to consume – потреблять; поглощать

drug – лекарство; наркотик

gastrointestinal tract – желудочно-кишечный тракт

intake – потребление, поглощение

soft drinks – безалкогольные напитки

saliva – слюна

urine – моча

 

Exercise 2. Answer the questions:

1. Is caffeine one of the most widely and frequently consumed drugs in the world?

2. What substance is structurally very similar to caffeine but much weaker psychostimulant?

3. Is caffeine contained in some medicines?

4. Why do people who consume much coffee have definite risk for their health?